The final chapter….sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? I’m just taking my cue from Desperate Housewives and House and such to draw you in. Maybe this will be as big as the last episode of M*A*S*H?!

Except that I’m not going to be satisfied with cable channel reruns like those shows. No, you will continue to hear from me about a variety of matters. But, it is time to wrap up our series on how we can fix our economy.

In the previous VIII Episodes, I have talked about strategies to address the too big to fail problem, repair our deficits, and set housing, energy, health care, education, infrastructure, and manufacturing all on a path to prosperity. Most of these strategies are built upon tenets that could elicit bipartisan support. And, every single problem I’ve addressed can be successfully resolved in the United States regardless of what happens in Europe or China or anywhere else. But, before I sign off from this series, there are 3 more points I would like to make:

Absolutism Will not Work: There are some of my colleagues on the right who believe that tax cuts can cure anything. There are some on the left who believe that… Read More

Californians are demanding real change to the failed status quo and on June 5th, based upon the primary election results, they sent an unmistakable message to Sacramento – stop overspending or else.

That message was clearly delivered by the voters. Victories for pension reform in San Jose and San Diego, and the looming defeat of a higher cigarette tax, are an encouraging outcome for fiscal responsibility in California. In the Democrat bastion of San Jose, voters overwhelmingly approved a measure that will force current city workers to either contribute more of their own money to their existing pension plan or enroll in a less generous plan with a higher retirement age. Future workers will receive retirement benefits that are somewhat similar to what private sector workers receive. San Jose’s voters approved this reform mainly because the city’s pension costs rose from $73 million in 2001 to a whopping $245 million this year. Residents have seen less police and fire services and more potholes as city government spent more money to fund out-of-control pension costs for retirees. The voters understood that every additional dollar… Read More

In 2009, politicians in Sacramento enacted the largest tax increase in the state’s history, a $12.8 billion infusion of cash that was supposed to end the state’s fiscal woes. Three years later, the state finds itself nearly $16 billion in the red and now the same politicians want another $50 billion in higher taxes to bail them out. As we have seen, no matter how much they raise our taxes, it is never enough for the free-spending politicians in Sacramento.

The problem with sending more money to Sacramento is that it gives politicians the easy way out. They’re not forced to reform the dysfunctional system as long as taxpayers continue let them off the hook with higher taxes to paper over the problems.

California already has the highest average state tax rate in the nation, and this measure would increase it 3% to 8.4%. Income taxes would jump as much as 32%. These higher income taxes would stay in place for seven years, regardless of whether or not the state’s economy improves, giving politicians a slush fund to continue their reckless spending.

The measure hurts small businesses, the engine that drives our economy and creates jobs, particularly… Read More

– Last night about 800 were on hand for the Orange County GOP’s annual Flag Day fundraising dinner featuring Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, author/screenwriter/political pundit Andrew Klavan, and a moving tribute to Andrew Breitbart. Persona non grata at the event was Charles Munger, Jr. A rousing applause was given when Assemblyman Allan Mansoor was introduced. A vast amount of OCGOP resources were diverted into re-electing Mansoor when Munger put over a half-million dollars into his ultimately very unsuccessful opponent.

– Proposition 14 is already clearly failing utterly to deliver on two of it’s articulated goals — reducing the role of special interests, and increasing voter choice. On the first, as candidates gear up for what will now be a second election in a row where they need to raise enough money to campaign to all voters (direct voter contact is quite expensive and California’s legislative districts are quite large), true local candidates have mostly tapped out their local sources of contributions. Guess who will have lots of… Read More

Following last Tuesday’s hotly contested San Diego City Council election for District 7, interest was piqued over the weekend when Friday’s count of late absentee and provisional ballots showed front-runner and Republican Scott Sherman’s portion of the vote tally slipping from about 51 percent to 50.59 percent.

With about 88,000 votes left to count across the county, it’s unclear what proportion of those remaining ballots are in the City of San Diego or even the 7th District, for that matter.

Yet, what’s clear is that it takes at least 50 percent plus one vote to secure an outright victory in the primary. With Sherman’s margin at last count heading towards that magic 50 number – even if only for a day or two — twitter recently sprang to life with a few self-annointed mathematicians, including yours truly (although I’d say I’m more of a wannabe in the arithmetic department than an anointed one).

The second place finisher in the primary race, Democrat Mat Kostrinsky, has no chance of catching Sherman, since he’s trailing by more than 10 points. Yet, political watchers know if Sherman falls below 50 percent, a forced top-two finisher… Read More

California is broke. We all know that. But one component that deserves at least passing notice is the state unemployment fund.

Surprise! It’s broke. So broke that it’s borrowed federal funds to keep paying people not to work. Now CA has to charge CA employers a payroll surcharge to pay the money back.

It’s not a huge tax per employee, but it’s unlikely to go away for years. Moreover the size of the “fed loan” employer tax will surely grow annually.

It’s just one more reason for businesses to relocate elsewhere. The only good news on this front is that there are 22 states with similar problems (Texas ain’t one of ’em).

http://taxfoundation.org/article/trend-7-collapsing-unemployment-insurance-systems… Read More

The League of California Cities tracked voting outcomes of the California local tax and bond measures. The brief SACRAMENTO BEE story and a direct link to the League’s results are here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/06/nearly-two-thirds-of-local-tax-and-bond-measures-pass.html

I found one aspect of the story a pleasant suprise. It’s refreshing that only 22 of the 34 school bond measures passed — 64.7%.

Since the bar for passing school bonds was lowered from 2/3 to 55% voter approval, I seem to recall that over 90% of such “55% majority” bonds usually pass. This growing taxpayer reluctance to be the government’s ATM machine is a hopeful sign.

BTW, for some reason the League didn’t include in their compilation of results our local Mountain Empire School District bond. This measure barely failed to pass — even though there were NO opposition ballot arguments. I love rural voters, independent cusses that they are.… Read More

I know that no politician will say this, but failed candidate that I am — I publicly encourage people NOT to vote — if they don’t know what or whom they are voting for.

And just because one chooses to vote, it doesn’t follow that one has to cast a vote for EVERY issue or candidate on the ballot.

It’s especially amazing how some people worry about the judges races, asking someone — anyone — to simply tell ’em how to vote. I get queries even on the UNOPPOSED judges races.

If ya don’t know, there’s nothing wrong with not voting. And I think we’ll all be better off if voters made that “abstain” choice when appropriate.

Hmmm . . . maybe I should have imparted this cracker barrel wisdom BEFORE the election. My bad.… Read More